Katie Couric Blames TV News for Trump

Katie Couric, the former Today Show host and anchor of the CBS Evening News, is the latest high-profile pundit to blame the news media for the rise of Donald Trump. In an interview with former Obama aide David Axelrod, Couric said that Trump basically took over the media for the duration of the primaries.

“There was that period of time where it was wall to wall coverage, 90 minutes of his rallies, with very little editorial context,” she said. “And I thought it was very difficult to ask him challenging questions on the phone because he was like a bulldozer.”

Couric said that if Trump had asked her for a phone interview, she would have only allowed him as much time as every other candidate. “He knew how to work the system and the system was more than happy to have him work it,” she said. “I don’t know because I wasn’t in those booking meetings so maybe other candidates were saying no, but they shouldn’t have.”

In addition to criticizing the media’s excessive coverage of Trump, Couric also criticized the focus of that coverage. “One of the things that wasn’t done as well was really examining the forces at work that were making him rise to the top and making his candidacy much more viable than people predicted,” she said. “And I think if we’d spend a little more time every election – less horserace and more context, more depth, more information, and more issues.”

Couric’s not the first person to question the frenzy that surrounded Trump, but it’s funny when and how these journalists choose to self-examine. They were all blaming themselves for not opposing the Iraq War, but you never see them wonder about their coverage of Obama’s drone strikes, do you? Speaking of Obama, that’s another great example. The media anointed the man a living saint in 2008; where’s all the handwringing about that?

No, they only remember to address their own problems when they get results they don’t like. Oh, Native Americans aren’t offended by the name “Redskins?” That means we haven’t done enough to spotlight this horrible slur! Oh, many Americans are against Obamacare? That just means we haven’t attacked Republicans hard enough.

Make no mistake, the media’s coverage of Trump this year has been embarrassing. But even though everyone in the media will agree with that, none of them will understand why it was embarrassing. Their partisan masks are on so tight, they can never see the truth.